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Friday, September 22, 2006

I'm Just Nuts About Corn

As well as being a tad sick of them.My very first attempt at making the elusive corn nut was a disaster. I found 2 recipes online for corn nuts. Both talked about using and soaking pre dried store bought corn. Since mine wasn't dry, I skipped that staged. And they came out burnt hollow shells. Then I happened to stumble on some information about Parched Corn, and it described what sounded like corn nuts. It said that one needed to soak the corn for 18 hours. The soaking began. My mind said that the corn would swell up with the water, not so, fresh corn is as swelled as it's going to get. Though the ones floating did sink to the bottom, they had taken on some of that water.

Next I was to place them in a single layer on a baking sheet, and bake in low temperature oven for a few hours. What temperature? Didn't say. I turned the oven on to 350f {176c} degrees and stirred them every ten minutes. Once they were slightly browned, I tossed them with a little oil and salt.

I now have parched corn.Tastes nothing like the Planters corn nuts. My husband says that these crack instead of crunch, and mine taste like corn with some salt. Well, that is what they are. I didn't expect that my first non-burning of said corn snack was going to be perfect. They are not bad, but not what I would encourage my friends to eat. They do have that same jaw soreness that the store bought corn nuts induce. I have another recipe that calls for some frying. I will try that one next to see what kind of difference it makes.

My last rose of the season.

I thought you might like to see something that was not food {though you can make candy from rose petals} and not brown.

The turkey, I am ready to eat him. I thought he was cool, felt bad about not being able to save him, but after last night. . . it's time. I was trying to get feed for the chickens and he was literally climbing up my back. I have to yell for a wind deaf husband. Then I just ran out of the pen. My husband went and fed everyone, and of course the turkey was all cool with him. So I got laughed at.

Last night I just happened to be online when Julie tagged me for that meme I did. I was filling it out, and getting ready to post it when I heard the emergency broadcast system alert go off over the cartoon my kids were watching. "THIS IS THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM" do you see what word is missing from that line. "THERE HAS BEEN AN EMERGENCY ISSUED FOR THIS AREA." Sure it's raining, but I have never heard a broadcast like this, the emergency being storm related didn't even cross my mind until I turned around to look at the screen and the word TORNADO came scrolling by. Never and I mean never has the emergency broadcast system sent out this type of broadcast for weather over a cable channel in the 20 odd years I have lived in this state. Immediately I jumped up and ran to change the channel to local news. My kids didn't protest because they were just as freaked out as I was. I flipped the news on and the first thing I see is this giant red blob and a massive, and I do mean massive hook echo. Another thing I have never seen, a hook echo that big! And it was right over downtown Wichita! My husband works downtown, my mother lives close. ACK! I grabbed the youngest child's diaper bag, and started telling the kids to get shoes on, don't argue with me, no, the animals will be fine. I have no idea which direction this thing is going. Where it was at that point, it could have easily continued it's way north and nailed us. Instead it moved off slightly to our east. I ran outside to see what I could, and actually heard the tornado sirens going off in the closest town, the wind would catch it just right. By now my kids are all hype about being sucked up by a tornado, but a little upset that they would have to leave there things in the house. I watch the storm pass and waited for my husband. He was fifteen minutes late coming home. But safe. He left work shortly before it had hit Wichita, but got caught in it at the farm store. He said he ran through the parking lot against horizontal rains. No tornado came from that storm, but other's in the state did. Haven't heard of any deaths, but there is rural damage.

OMG, I totally forgot to post today about my brush with a tornado last night. We RARELY get tornados near Chicago because of the lake effect, but we got one last night. And I was driving RIGHT into it on my way to the show. I believe I was actually IN the tornado because you couldn't see ANYTHING and all this foliage and twigs and stuff were swirling above my car and we all just STOPPED driving. And the hail was like golf ball sized. I've never been so scared in my life, because there was no where to go - just residential homes and road - no stores or restaurants to seek shelter. I lived though! Freaked me out for the whole show last night, but I got a beer afterward and that REALLY helped. Whew! Glad you and your kids were ok too.

As for "low oven temp."...they usually mean 200 or 250, and then it dries/bakes over a long time (couple hours or more). This is often used for jerky and drying pumpkin seeds, you can even prop the door open if you feel it's moving along too quickly. As for the twister-glad you're all okay...I was in one as a child, and they sure as hell look better in the movies! I remember an odd, pinkish look to the sky, the air pressure changed so fast that my ears popped. It was sooo quiet before-no birds or anything (they know). My dad made us all go down to the basement, but he stayed upstairs to watch for the storm until the last minute. It's true, the sound is like a freight train...it passed our house only about 3 blocks away. My sister begged dad to lift her to the basement window to see, and not to be outdone, I had to see, too. (Dummy-I had nightmares for years). Finally, it passed, and we all went outside to check the damage....it leveled a dairy farm two roads over, and there were dead cows EVERYWHERE-in trees, draped over power lines, EVERYWHERE...it was awful. I have the utmost respect for the power of weather, and I take NO warning lightly. I hope for your sake this is as close as you ever get!

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About Me

I am a death metal homesteader. Or so I jokingly refer to myself.
I have been cooking since I could reach the stove, homesteading on 5 acres in Kansas for 11 years and on the back of a bike for the last 15 years.
Recently we left the Great Plains to start a new life in the Appalachian foothills. Living completely off grid.
I freelance write for a variety of ezines and paper rags. The topics I like to cover are rather eclectic, as is my life.